Pinball Arcade is updated with the Terminator 2 table that was Kickstarted recently. This is a premium table so is $5. Really looking forward to this one since it was one of the few pinball games I played regularly - put $100 towards the Kickstarter when it was going poorly. But those that Kickstarted it have to wait yet again as there's problems delivering the table to backers. Kinda silly that they still haven't got it down after the last two problematic KS rewards. But know its temporary and will likely have it in 24hrs.

Looks like the table pack for September will be Haunted House and Tee'd Off, both Gottlieb tables. Haunted House is a classic, one I've recall playing as a kid, but I remember it looked a lot better than it played. I started playing the VP version of the table and it just seems like Black Hole with an upper deck.

The PC version has been heavily tested the last two weeks. It sounds like its coming along very well and should finally be making it to Steam in the near future. The initial release will be pretty much console ports of the tables with little extra fanfare. The PC version will eventually get all the lighting updates they're putting in to the PS4 version, which is due on release in November.

I reinstalled Pinball Arcade to give the T2 table a look, but I can't find it anywhere (not in the Season 1 or Season 2 sections). Is it a separate download?

Holy cow are the ball physics different from Zen Pinball.

It's in the Season 2 pack.

You may need to update the app. It should have T2 as the icon for Pinball Arcade.

Thanks, updating now. I just figured downloading it fresh would give me the most recent version. Not so much.

I'm really digging Junk Jack X on the iPad. I'm able to deal with the controls better than in the first game, and I'm enjoying the more laid back vibe of exploring, mining and building, versus the constant battling in Terraria.

Logged

Patriotism means being loyal to your country all the time and to its government when it deserves it - Mark Twain

Oh nice, is that the big differentiator between the two? Terraria on the PC didn't really grab me, and Junk Jack looked almost identical. In Minecraft I much preferred exploration to combat, so I'll have to give Junk Jack a closer look now.

Ok, Junk Jack X has its hooks in me pretty good. What's the scoop on buying the complete crafting recipe book? Does it take away from the fun of the game to have that all handed to you, rather than having to set out and collect them?

Is there metal armor in the game? My leather armor just doesn't seem to be cutting it anymore. Likewise, any way to increase my max health?

Is there a way to create animal pens and start breeding them close to home?

Is there a bigger storage chest than the initial one? My home storage solutions are getting a little insane.

My advice is to tree farm for a bit. You will get tons of recipe drops. These will include recipes for armor, chests, and for animal pens.

I never made leather armor - I went straight to metal. So I guess there is some randomization to recipe drops. That said, I am no longer getting drops, so I imagine my recipe book is mostly full. Many of the recipes call for stuff that must only be available on other worlds. I have built up a good collection of seeds and saplings, I have ~ two dozen varieties and have not farmed anything other than wood. Nor have I cooked anything beyond roasting meat in a furnace.

Spoiler for Hiden:

I have progressed to opening two other worlds so far. Don't even try the 2nd world until you have a full set of gold armor and a gold weapon. I found my first mithril in the 2nd world last night. I won't even go to the 3rd world, beyond just popping through the portal. I need better gear.

You've got the order down right. As far as I can tell, bronze is used only to make nails. I haven't seen tool/armor recipes for it. As for what is better - the only way I know to check is in the inventory screen. You can pull a drop-down menu from above the character picture and it shows damage resistance numbers that change as you swap out armor. I don't know about set bonuses. I only have two pieces of one set (library).

Tip: If you are resource poor - you might want to kit your character out for an adventure and then exit the world and start a new one. Character inventory transfers between games/worlds. They have changed the resource gen in the latest patch and there is a lot more ore/coal/crates near the surface in the first planet.

From what I understand, the devs were just going to update the original, but the Junk Jack's program wasn't advanced enough to allow them to put in all of the new features that they wanted, so they made JJX. Owning both, JJX feels like Junk Jack 1.5 to me. I don't see any reason to pick up the original now, as JJX has all its features and more, and they did support the original quite a bit, so JJX should get a lot of substantial updates.

Logged

Patriotism means being loyal to your country all the time and to its government when it deserves it - Mark Twain

Pinball Arcades table pack #18 is out for $5. Contains the following games:

Haunted House (Gottlieb 1982) - One of the few pinball games I would play in the arcades when I was a kid. It was probably the pinball game that got me to both play since it looked so cool and think pinball was a just a dumb score chase so why bother. Its a classic though with 8 flippers and three levels (attic, main room, basement). Not really that deep gameplay to it but it looks great and has some great music/sounds in it.

Tee'd Off (Gottlieb 1993) - Looks similar to No Good Gofers in that its another golf theme with a snarky gofer. I haven't played this one previously anywhere but in the few games I just tried it seems decent but not sure if it has legs. It looks to be on the easier side of tables as most of my shots ended going somewhere safe, either up a ramp, an upkicker or kick out hole. The only real danger seemed to be going for the drop-shots at the center of the table. It has at least two multi-ball modes that I triggered and kinda has a neat feature where you get to spell out the word GOPHER using the captive ball spinner in the middle of the machine - the letters you get carry over from game to game.

I get the sense this table will turn out more like the Harley table where I really enjoyed it at first but then barely play it after the first month.

People have already figured out what Season Pack #19 will have by the newsletter clue. It'll be another Gottlieb pack: Class of 1812 and Victory. Class of 1812 is pretty fun from what I've played of the VisualPinball version - it's humorous Halloween style theme. Victory I haven't played at all but its a racing theme that looks ok - too bad they didn't get one of the High Speed tables.

I am really digging Towncraft. It's kind of a mix of a "Dwarf Fortress"-ish game with a touch of Minecraft in the crafting. After a bit of a learning curve, I'm enjoying the town building and completing the simple quests.

Logged

Patriotism means being loyal to your country all the time and to its government when it deserves it - Mark Twain

Pinball Arcade table pack #19 is out. Two more Gottlieb tables. Scared Stiff is the free table of the month. As usual $5 to purchase the tables.

Class of 1812 - Their tongue-in-cheek horror themed pin for October. The 1812 part comes from the 1812 Overture that plays when you get the 2-ball multiball - which happens quite frequently. Part of it is sung by a chicken. This is an 80's table and had bad 80's rap in it but thankfully they get over and done with quick. The table itself is pretty decent with the goal of digging up graves for various monsters (zombie, vampire, wolfman, ect). It's no Monster Bash but still pretty good for what it is.

Victory - This ones a racing themed pin. Was kinda surprised how much I liked it after a few plays. The goal of this one is to get through 8 checkpoints. Each checkpoint is a different shot on the table. And when you hit one checkpoint a countdown of points begins (starting at 800,000). Hitting the next checkpoint before the points bonus counts down awards you those points. So you can really rack up the points pretty quickly by making the various checkpoint shots. I don't think there is a multiball on this table, although I did capture a ball once. The table looks a bit more complex than it actually is - its rather simple. And I kinda like it for that but don't think it'll have lasting appeal. The music is horrid.

Pinball Arcade is finally coming to Steam on November 1st. It'll have the first 18 table packs. You can purchase the two entire seasons at a discount (S1 $29.99, S2 $39.99) or at the regular prices $5 per reg packs $10 for the 3 Kickstarter tables. These will NOT have the improved lighting on the tables, that will be on the PS4 version initially. Sometime "soon" after the PS4 release the PC tables will be updated with the improved lighting. I'm really looking forward to it. I got to play the PS4 version at the Chicago Pinball Expo and the new lighting really adds a lot of atmosphere to the tables I played.

Also got to try the ST:NG game on the VirutaPin cabinet and that was a lot of fun too so if you have one of those (koff) they'll eventually support it.

Pocket Titans - the meta setup is similar to games like Battleheart (missions which you can replay, unlockable classes/characters to level and gear up). What it lacks in depth and customization it makes up for with the main combat gameplay, which is a semi-unique turn-based puzzle system. You don't get direct control of your party members' actions, but you can manipulate the battlefield (and the positions of your members or the enemies) through shifting the rows and columns of the grid. So essentially it becomes a game of manipulating pieces with anticipation of who they will target with what skill (generally through line of sight, though some units can attack anywhere). It's a clever twist which I am enjoying a lot.

Echo Prime - from the maker of one of my all-time favorite games (Hero Academy), this one shares similarities to quite a few other games out there although in a sci-fi environment. It's also a repeatable mission-based structure, but with only a single character, and is more action oriented. The core gameplay is touch based combat sort of reminiscent of a simplified Diablo 3. The mission types are fast, fairly simple fare, survival, protect something, kill X, or just a linear hallway. You fight with both a ranged and melee weapon, both of which can be upgraded. At first the game seemed too simplistic and kind of disappointing. The more you play, though, the more the game opens up in terms of available missions, as well as it's main "specialty" - and that's the "echo" system. Essentially it's a collectible skill system, similar to D3 in the sense that you can only use a limited amount of skills from your available skill pool. Different from D3 in that you unlock the skills through playing the game, leveling your gear and other means - and then you get to choose generally from a selection of 3 skills. The "echos" are all characters, but this novelty doesn't really change the gameplay. They could just as well have been called skills. An interesting aspect is that every mission you get to choose from your own pool but also you get one extra randomly chosen from 3 other players of the game. Whichever one you choose, that player also gets some reward for you using their echo. All in all it's a fun game that will probably seem similar to other touch-based ARPGs out there, but with enough of a twist to make it worth checking out IMHO. The game comes with a base price but also includes (thus far) unobtrusive IAP.

Doom and Destiny - just started this one, it's an old school JRPG-style game created with the RPG Maker tool (I think) but cleverly written. Seems to be getting a good reception.

Put a couple hours into Doom & Destiny yesterday, really enjoying it so far. It's got that old-school FF vibe, with a unique leveling and skill system. The premise is amusing, and much of the writing is laugh-out-loud funny. I'd certainly recommend it.

Deciding not to play a game you're interested because of a $2 price difference doesn't make sense to me, but to each their own.

Yeah, that's human psychology for you. I find I have to talk myself out of these things sometimes. "This game looks really interesting, but oh. Damn. It's a premium $3. Hmm... Well, I suppose if I read some more reviews and double check more forum impressions to be sure it's worth-- OH WAIT. IT'S ONLY TWO DOLLARS."

Deciding not to play a game you're interested because of a $2 price difference doesn't make sense to me, but to each their own.

Yeah, that's human psychology for you. I find I have to talk myself out of these things sometimes. "This game looks really interesting, but oh. Damn. It's a premium $3. Hmm... Well, I suppose if I read some more reviews and double check more forum impressions to be sure it's worth-- OH WAIT. IT'S ONLY TWO DOLLARS."

Again, though, it's more about the fact that it had been one dollar literally the day before I went to purchase it.